January & February 2007 After Christmas, a swift departure for a few hours in England, followed by a flight to Bombay, where after a few hours I boarded a train for the north. Twenty-four hours later Roshni Panday, Dinesh Parakh and I disembarked at Allahabad and caught a taxi to "Kumbh City," the location of this year's Ardha Kumbha Mela, the carnival-like religious festival where we met Prof. Ramdas Lamb and his guruji, Manasa Maharathi Tyagiji Maharaj. It is always a pleasure to meet with Tyagiji. Two days, and several frigid moments later (the early morning baths with unheated water were a particular jolt), a taxi to Benaras. Five days later: a train to Haradvara, then a taxi ride up the hills to Uttar Kashi, with a pandit for a driver (he recited Panini's Maheshvarani Sutrani, the fourteen cryptic lines from which all of classical Sanskrit grammar is unpacked, for me & Dr. Fred Smith). Three days later: back down for two nights in Dehra Dun, then a night in Delhi, then a few nights in Pune, and back to Bombay.

Then, after two nights in Bombay, a flight to Cochin, followed by several hours in a car to reach Pandalam, where PAC, the Italian company that makes excellent Ayurvedic face & body care products, has a soap factory, which I toured briefly before a fine pasta dinner, followed by a late night taxi ride (interrupted briefly by a midnight procession) to Kayankulam train station, where I caught a train for Madurai, where I was met by Robert Moses of Namarupa renown. The next day I spent in Madurai with Robert & his family & the participants on the Namarupa tour that he was leading, and the following day we drove to Rameshvaram, where we spent two nights, including a visit to an excellent beach from which one can see Sri Lanka. After returning to Madurai, a departure for Kerala. High point of this portion of our trip: seeing a wild elephant right by the side of the road as we drove through a game preserve. Low point: loud dissonant karaoke music sung by tipsy city folk just outside our hotel in the otherwise idyllic Maraiur. After a few days in the Cochin area (including a visit to astrologer Ramesh Nayak), off for a hike with Robert & his sons, then several days of remedial oiling before flying to Bombay, then to England, where I spent Mahashivaratri at the ever-welcoming Sivananda Centre, before returning to the USA before Feb end. Whew!

On the morning of February 5: a moth on the bathroom mirror, camouflaged a mottled golden brown to seem like a small stick, a perfect disguise for its chosen residential region. An excellent lesson in fitting in ...

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